Commentary: Gun lobby embarrasses itself

For one week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the gun lobby remained respectfully quiet. It even shut down its Facebook page. And not a peep on Twitter.

The organization said that when it finally talked, its leaders would offer "meaningful contributions" to the national gun debate that has been raging since the Connecticut horror that left 20 children and six adults dead.

And when the NRA finally spoke to the world on Friday, what did we get? What was the "meaningful contribution?"

The NRA's main man, Wayne LaPierre, said the answer is more guns.

We wish we were making that up. We're not.

LaPierre blamed graphic video games for the violence in America.

He blamed violent movies. He blamed music videos. He blamed mental illness.

He blamed gun-free zones in place like schools.

He blamed the media for demonizing lawful gun owners.

The "meaningful contribution" he made was a call for armed officers to be posted in every school in America, a proposal that one estimate puts at $5.5 billion a year, to say nothing of turning schools into armed camps.

Yes. More guns. LaPierre did everything but suggest that lunch-room ladies pack AK-47s. Perhaps that will be their "meaningful contribution" at the next NRA press conference.

Never once did LaPierre mention assault weapons.

Never once did he mention the 300 million guns owned by Americans — basically one gun for every man, woman and child in the country.

Never once did he mention closing background-check loopholes at places like gun shows.

Never once did he mention limiting the size of weapon magazines.

Never once did he mention the dozens of people shot to death in America since Sandy Hook.

But LaPierre crafted a phrase destined for infamy in the NRA playbook, right next to "Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People."

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun," he said, "is a good guy with a gun."

You can see the bumper sticker already.

If you thought the press conference — a misnomer, since LaPierre took no questions — was bizarre, just remember that so many of our elected officials, nationally and in Florida, kowtow to this organization.

Florida legislators, in particular, never saw a pro-gun law they couldn't embrace. Guns in workplace parking lots. Guns in parks. Guns everywhere. We lead the nation in concealed weapons permits.

And remember, Florida won't let doctors ask mentally unstable patients if they own guns. The Second Amendment is sacred in Florida, but the First Amendment — the one about free speech — apparently doesn't mean as much.

President Obama has asked for "real action, right now," to stem the gun violence in the nation. What we heard from LaPierre on Friday wasn't a "meaningful contribution." It sounded more like a skit on "Saturday Night Live."